5 Common Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

INTRODUCTION

According to Adobe, for every 1% of shoppers who become repeat customers, a company’s revenue will increase by about 10%. Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools that marketers have to retain customers through engagement.

An increasing number of companies are more astute about their email approach, leveraging data collected on their CRM system to deepen their understanding of the consumer and put into place advanced tactics such as automation, segmentation and personalisation. This data can also be used to construct personas that allow marketers to obtain actionable insights into consumers’ habits, routines, and what they like and dislike.

Keep reading to uncover the 5 common mistakes you might be making in your email campaigns – and how to fix them.

NOT USING SEGMENTATION TO PERSONALISE EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

Today’s customers have become very demanding. In today’s regulatory landscape of increasingly stringent data protection rules, if they agree to share their personal data, it is to receive, in exchange, highly personalised emails, offers and promotions. According to Econsultancy, 74% of marketers say targeted personalisation increases customer engagement. It has become a necessity for marketers to deliver a personalised experience, and to deliver such an experience, they must deliver content that is tailored to customers’ needs, interests and preferences. To achieve personalisation, you should be segmenting your database according to customer attributes in order to build relevant email journeys (for example according to geography, age, gender, preferences, past purchases, buying frequency and much more).

USING A ‘NO REPLY’ EMAIL ADDRESS

Despite efforts to improve email marketing practices, many marketers still send their emails from ‘no-reply’ email addresses, yet this conveys a poor image of your brand. Importantly, the lack of a two-way communication channel suggests that you do not care about their feedback or reactions, despite such spontaneous and organic responses being real gold mines for actionable insights! In addition, consumers still like to think that a real person is at the other end of the email and they will be encouraged in taking action if the email communication feels less cold and impersonal.

NOT FOCUSING ON MOBILE

According to a recent survey, 81% of people use a smartphone to regularly check emails. Mobiles have become a game changer for emails because your subscribers can read your emails anywhere, at any time. Yet, many brands are still not leveraging the power of mobile correctly.

Mistakes arise because marketers ignore the key elements that make sure emails are mobile friendly, for example when the writing is simply too small, or the links are too close together.

SENDING EMAILS WITHOUT TESTING FOR RESPONSIVENESS OR A/B TESTING

Another common mistake is sending your emails without testing them. Many mistakes can be avoided if you add an additional step before sending out your emails to test how they look across every device.

You should also be strategically implementing A/B testing to get feedback on different variations of design and copy techniques by analysing which email approach resulted in better open and click-through rates.

NOT USING AN EMAIL MARKETING SYSTEM TO DRIVE GROWTH

One of the biggest misconceptions some businesses still have is believing they can send successful email campaigns – without using an email marketing system.

Email marketing systems will help you send targeted campaigns to people you know are already interested in your product or service. By sending highly personalised messages to a relevant audience you will increase the number of recipients that are opening your emails and reduce the number of people deleting them. Thus, you will send positive signals to email providers about the validity of your campaigns. In the end, through these continuous efforts, you will decrease the number of your emails being blocked by providers.

Another big misconception is that simply having an email system in place will automatically transform the way your email is received. In reality, email marketers are facing growing challenges in their domain: from data protection to increasing customer expectations relating to personalisation and timing.

The stakes are high: research suggests that mastering these types of email campaigns can generate 80% more sales at a third of the cost. An automated marketing system that leverages the power of CRM data and is used in combination with industry best practices will allow you to drive growth by constructing personalised email journeys that guide your customers across a relevant buyer journey. Last but not least, using an email marketing system will also enable you to connect data captured about email recipients to a powerful analytics tool that can be used to hone and refine future campaigns.